Ashes buried inside an old well
Art Neuendorffer
Date of Birth
6 May 1915, Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA
.
Date of Death
10 October 1985, Hollywood, California, USA. (heart attack)
.
Birth Name
George Orson Welles
.
Height
6' 1?" (1.87 m)
.
Mini Biography
His father was a well-to-do inventor, his mother a beautiful concert
pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano,
painting)
as a child. When his mother died (he was nine) he traveled the world
with his father. When his father died (he was fifteen) he became the
ward of Chicago's Dr. Maurice Bernstein. In 1931 he graduated from
the
Todd School in Woodstock, Illinois; he turned down college offers for
a
sketching tour of Ireland. He tried unsuccessfully to enter the
London
and Broadway stages, traveling some more in Morocco and Spain (where
he
fought in the bullring). Recommendations by Thornton Wilder and
Alexander Woollcott got him into Katherine Cornell's road company,
with
which he made his New York debut as Tybalt in 1934. The same year he
married, directed his first short, and appeared on radio for the
first
time. He began working with John Houseman and formed the Mercury
Theatre
with him in 1937. In 1938 they produced "The Mercury Theatre on the
Air", famous for its broadcast version of "The War of the Worlds"
(intended as a Halloween prank). His first film to be seen by the
public
was Citizen Kane (1941), a commercial failure losing RKO $150,000,
but
regarded by many as the best film ever made. Many of his next films
were
commercial failures and he exiled himself to Europe in 1948. In 1956
he
directed Touch of Evil (1958); it failed in the U.S. but won a prize
at
the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. In 1975, in spite of all his box-
office
failures, he received the American Film Institute's Lifetime
Achievement
Award, and in 1984 the Directors Guild of America awarded him its
highest honor, the D.W. Griffith Award. His reputation as a film
maker
has climbed steadily ever since.>>
.
Spouse
Paola Mori (8 May 1955 - 10 October 1985) (his death) 1 child
Rita Hayworth (7 September 1943 - 1 December 1948) (divorced) 1 child
Virginia Nicholson (14 November 1934 - 1 February 1940) (divorced) 1
child
.
One of the most recognizable deep voices in all of film, radio or
television.
.
Dated Eartha Kitt. He called her "the most exciting woman in the
world."
.
Once ate 18 hotdogs in one sitting at Pink's (a Los Angeles hot dog
institution).
.
On old time radio, Orson Welles provided the voice for Lamont
Cranston,
aka THE SHADOW.
.
H.G. Wells was driving through San Antonio, Texas and stopped to ask
the
way. The person he happened to ask was none other than Orson Welles
who
had recently broadcast "The War of the Worlds" on the radio. They got
on
well and spent the day together.
.
Daughter born. [27 March 1938]
.
'American Broadcasting Company (ABC) [us]' wanted him to play Mr.
Roarke
on "Fantasy Island" (1978), but Aaron Spelling insisted on Ricardo
Montalban.
.
Died the same day as Yul Brynner.
.
Ashes are buried inside an old well covered by flowers, within the
rural
property of retired bullfighter Antonio Ord??ez, Ronda, Malaga, Spain.
.
One of only six actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for
Best
Actor for his first screen appearance. (The other five actors are:
Alan
Arkin, James Dean, Paul Muni, Montgomery Clift and Lawrence Tibbett)
.
Father, with Rita Hayworth, of Rebecca (born 1944) (died October 17,
2004). She was survived by her husband Guy, her son Marc and 3
stepchildren as well as her 8 grandchildren and her 3 half-siblings
Yasmin, Christopher and Beatrice.
.
Father, with Paola Mori, of Beatrice (b. 1955).
.
Father, with Virginia Nicholson, of Christopher (b. 1937).
.
On 30 October 1938, he directed the Mercury Theatre On the Air in a
dramatization of "War of the Worlds", based on H.G. Wells' novel.
Setting the events in then-contemporary locations (The "landing spot"
for the Martian invasion, Grover's Mill, New Jersey, was chosen at
random with a New Jersey road map) and dramatizing it in the style of
a
musical program interrupted by news bulletins, complete with eye-
witness
accounts, it caused a nationwide panic, with many listeners fully
convinced that the Earth was being invaded by Mars. The next day,
Welles
publicly apologized. While many lawsuits were filed against both
Welles
and the CBS radio network, all were dismissed. The incident is
mentioned
in textbook accounts of mass hysteria and the delusions of crowds.
.
Despite his reputation as an actor and master film-maker, he
maintained
his membership in the Magicians' Union, and regularly practiced
sleight-of-hand magic in case his career came to an abrupt end.
.
A bootleg tape of a short-tempered (and foul-mouthed) Orson Welles
arguing with a recording engineer during a voice-over session has
been
widely distributed. It was used as the basis for an episode of the
cartoon show "Pinky and the Brain" (1995), with The Brain reading
cleaned-up verions of Orson's rantings (the episode's title, "Yes,
Always", is taken from one of Orson's complaints). Ironically, the
actor
who plays The Brain, Maurice LaMarche, dubbed the voice of the actor
who
portrays Orson Welles in Ed Wood (1994).
.
He was born on the same day that Babe Ruth hit his very first home
run.
.
Declined the chance to be the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars
(1977).
.
He tried to make a film version of the book Don Quixote. He started
working on it in 1955 and continued to film through the 1970s with
Francisco Reiguera and Akim Tamiroff starring. An incomplete version
was
released in Spain in 1992.
.
Made a Hollywood satire, The Other Side of the Wind (1972), starring
John Huston and Peter Bogdanovich. Though it was completed, the
post-production process was not and the film also ran into legal
problems.
.
He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988.
.
Frank Sinatra was the godfather of one of his daughters.
.
Host/narrator of the BBC/Mutual Radio's "The Black Museum" (1952).
.
Portrayed the title character on the syndicated radio show "The Lives
of
Harry Lime" (also known as "The Third Man") (1951-1952). It was based
on
his character from the film The Third Man (1949).
.
Has the distinction of appearing in both the American Film Institute
and
British Film Institute's #1 movie. For AFI it was Citizen Kane
(1941).
For BFI it was The Third Man (1949).
.
He was the studio's first choice to play the voiceover role of "OMM"
in
THX 1138 (1971). However, director George Lucas insisted on casting
the
relatively unknown stage actor James Wheaton instead.
.
Provided voice for some songs of heavy metal band Manowar: Dark
Avenger
and Defender
.
He became obese in his 40s, weighing over 350 pounds towards the end
of
his life.
.
Was possibly not as tall as is often reported. According to Simon
Callow
in the excellent biography "Orson Welles: The Road To Xanadu,"
medical
records exist from a Welles physical in 1941. His weight is listed as
218, and his height at 72" - 6 feet even. Biographers Charles Higham
and
Frank Brady describe Welles as being 6'2", though they never provide
a
source. Biographer Barbara Leaming often comments on his height, but
never gives an exact measurement. An early Current Biography article
on
Welles describes him as being "tall and chubby," while a later one
gives
the obviously incorrect 6'3-1/2" height. If you average all the
figures
and based on his size compared to other actors, he probably in fact
stood a little over 6 feet tall (6'1" to 6'2").
.
Was voted the 2nd Greatest Film Director of all time by Entertainment
Weekly.
.
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume
One,
1890- 1945". Pages 1168-1185. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
.
His 1937 Broadway stage production of William Shakespeare's "Julius
Caesar", in which the setting was changed to a modern Fascist Rome to
reflect the Mussolini era, but in which Shakespeare's language was
completely retained, became, and still remains, the longest-running
Broadway production of the play. Welles played Brutus. This
production
was never filmed, but years later, Welles' former working partner
John
Houseman produced a traditional film version of the play for MGM,
starring James Mason as Brutus, Marlon Brando as Marc Antony and John
Gielgud as Cassius.
.
Was the subject of author Mary Pacios' book about the "Black Dahlia"
murder in Los Angeles in 1947 (called the most gruesome in the city's
history). Pacios claimed Welles was the unknown murderer who
slaughtered
struggling actress Elizabeth Short; however, the book was considered
pure nonsense and debunked by many historians.
.
When he signed on to direct Touch of Evil (1958), instead of reading
the
book on which it was based, a pulp novel named "Badge of Evil," he
completely changed an early draft of the script.
.
Narrated the teaser trailer for Star Wars (1977).
.
Told Peter Bogdanovich that, as a practicing magician, he became
adept
at the old carny trick of fortune-telling, but he became so good at
it
that it scared him. He was worried that he'd come to believe he
actually
DID have the power to tell the future, like the self-deluded fortune
tellers known as a "shut eye."
.
Wanted to make films of two literary masterpices, Herman Melville's
"Moby Dick" and Joseph Heller's "Catch-22", but had to be satisfied
in
having supporting roles in the films made of the two books by John
Huston and Mike Nichols.
Wrote his novel "Mr. Arkadian" during an extended stay with Laurence
Olivier and his wife Vivien Leigh. Welles was appearing at Olivier's
St.
James Theater in London at the time.
.
Laurence Olivier had wanted to cast him as Buckingham in his film of
Shakespeare's "Richard III" but gave the role to Ralph Richardson,
his
oldest friend, because Richardson wanted it. In his autobiography,
Olivier says he wishes he had disappointed Richardson and cast Welles
instead, as he would have brought an extra element to the screen, an
intelligence that would have gone well with the plot element of
conspiracy.
.
Lobbied to get the part of Don Vito Corrleone in The Godfather
(1972).
Francis Ford Coppola, a fan of his, had to turn him down because he
already had Marlon Brando in mind for the role and felt Welles
wouldn't
be right for it.
.
He made The Lady from Shanghai (1947) towards the end of his marriage
to
Rita Hayworth. They were constantly fighting at the time and (some
say
as a comeuppance to Hayworth) he made her cut off most of her long,
luxurious red hair and dye it bright platinum blonde.
.
Was named #16 on the 50 Greatest Screen Legends list of the American
Film Institute.
.
Was the narrator for many of the trailers for Star Trek: The Motion
Picture (1979).
.
In his collection of interviews, "This Is Orson Welles", he claimed
to
have never even read his so-called novelization of "Mr Arkadin", let
alone written it.
.
Before deciding on adapting the life of William Randolph Hearst in
Citizen Kane (1941), he intended his first film to be an adaptation
of
Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". Ironically enough, he was
Francis
Ford Coppola's first choice for the role of Col. Kurtz in Apocalypse
Now
(1979), itself an adaptation of "Heart of Darkness".
.
His average dinner famously consisted of two steaks cooked rare, and
a
pint of scotch - explaining his obesity as he got older, and his
subsequent death.
.
Is portrayed by Liev Schreiber in RKO 281 (1999) (TV), by Edward
Edwards
in Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess (1983) (TV), by Eric Purcell in
Malice in Wonderland (1985) (TV), by Vincent D'Onofrio in Ed Wood
(1994), and by Angus Macfadyen in Cradle Will Rock (1999)
.
Ranked #9 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Greatest directors
ever!" [2005]
.
His father was an alcoholic
.
Considered black and white to be "the actor's best friend", feeling
that
it focused more on the actor's expressions and feelings than on hair,
eye or wardrobe color.
.
Was very good friends with Peter Bogdanovich, in whose house he lived
for several years during Bogdanovich's affair with Cybill Shepherd.
Welles even gave Bogdanovich written instructions to finish his last
film, _Other Side of the Wind, The (1974)_ , before his death.
.
Was a passionate painter
.
Most of his movie projects never got finished or released due to
financial problems and disputes with studio executives. Some of his
unfinished productions are: The Deep (1970) (Laurence Harvey's death
made a finished movie impossible), The Merchant of Venice (1969) (TV)
and Don Quijote de Orson Welles (1992).
.
Longtime companion of Oja Kodar. They lived together until his death.
.
Is portrayed by Paul Shenar in the made-for-TV film The Night That
Panicked America (1975) (TV), which dramatized Welles' "War of the
Worlds" radio drama.
.
Has been played by Vincent D'Onofrio twice: Ed Wood (1994) and Five
Minutes, Mr. Welles (2005).
.
In the 1930s he worked at various radio stations in New York City, at
different times of the day. He found it difficult to be on time for
his
live shows because he had to use taxicabs and the heavy New York City
traffic meant that he was often late. He soon found a loophole in the
law that said you didn't have to be sick to hire an ambulance, so he
did
just that and had the drivers blast their sirens as he traveled from
one
station to the next, and that way he was on time.
.
Profiled in in J.A. Aberdeen's "Hollywood Renegades: The Society of
Independent Motion Picture Producers". Palos Verdes Estates, CA:
Cobblestone Entertainment
.
Merv Griffin claims in his new DVD collection, "Merv Griffin:
Interesting People" that Welles died two hours after giving Merv an
interview in which he had said to ask him anything, "for this
interview
there are no subjects about which I won't speak." In the past, Welles
refused to speak about the past.
.
His performance as Harry Lime in "The Third Man" (1949) is ranked #93
on
Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
.
His performance as Charles Foster Kane in "Citizen Kane" (1941) is
ranked #12 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All
Time.
.
Hated working on Transformers: The Movie (1986), where he voiced
Unicron. When asked about the film, he not only couldn't remember the
name of his character, but he described the film as being "I play a
big
toy who attacks a bunch of smaller toys."
.
John Ford, whom Welles admired as the greatest American director and
who, in turn, admired Welles as a director and actor, wanted to cast
him
as Mayor Frank Skeffington in his movie adaption of 'Edwin O'Connor'
(Qv)'s novel _Last Hurrah, the (1958)_ . Welles was unable to accept
the
role due to scheduling conflicts, and Spencer Tracy was cast instead.
.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume
One,
1981-1985, pages 861-864. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.
.
CBS wanted him to host The Twilight Zone, but the producers felt that
he
requested too much money. Therefore, he was ultimately ruled out in
favor of Rod Serling.
.
Was George Lucas' first choice as the voice for Darth Vader, but he
thought the voice would be too recognizable.
.
Personal Quotes:
.
"Even if the good old days never existed, the fact that we can
conceive
such a world is, in fact, an affirmation of the human spirit."
.
[Commenting on pop idol Donny Osmond] "He has Van Gogh's ear for
music."
.
"I'm not very fond of movies. I don't go to them much."
.
"I started at the top and worked down."
.
"I'm not bitter about Hollywood's treatment of me, but over its
treatment of Griffith, Von Sternberg, Von Stroheim, Buster Keaton
and a hundred others."
.
"Movie directing is the perfect refuge for the mediocre."
.
(on Hollywood in the 1980s) "We live in a snake pit here...I hate it
but
I just don't allow myself to face the fact that I hold it in contempt
because it keeps on turning out to be the only place to go."
.
"I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop
eating peanuts."
.
"If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating
raw
meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girl
friends.
And they tolerated it and let us go ahead and play with our toys."
.
"I hate it when people pray on the screen. It's not because I hate
praying, but whenever I see an actor fold his hands and look up in
the
spotlight, I'm lost. There's only one other thing in the movies I
hate
as much, and that's sex. You just can't get in bed or pray to God and
convince me on the screen."
.
[On Citizen Kane (1941) being colorized] "Keep Ted Turner and his
goddamned Crayolas away from my movie."
.
(At RKO Studios working on Heart of Darkness, a film he later
abandoned), "This is the biggest electric train set a boy ever had!"
.
"For thirty years people have been asking me how I reconcile X with
Y!
The truthful answer is that I don't. Everything about me is a
contradiction and so is everything about everybody else. We are made
out
of oppositions; we live between two poles. There is a philistine and
an
aesthete in all of us, and a murderer and a saint. You don't
reconcile
the poles. You just recognize them."
"My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless
there are three other people."
.
I think I'm... I made essentially a mistake staying in movies,
because
I... but it... it's the mistake I can't regret because it's like
saying
"I shouldn't have stayed married to that woman, but I did because I
love
her." I would have been more successful if I'd left movies
immediately.
Stayed in the theater, gone into politics, written-- anything. I've
wasted the greater part of my life looking for money, and trying to
get
along... trying to make my work from this terribly expensive paint
box
which is an... a movie. And I've spent too much energy on things that
have nothing to do with a movie. It's about two percent movie making
and
98% hustling. It's no way to spend a life.
.
"I think it is always a tremendously good formula in any art form to
admit the limitations of the form."
.
"I don't pray because I don't want to bore God."
.
"A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head
of
a poet."
.
"I have the terrible feeling that, because I am wearing a white beard
and am sitting in the back of the theater, you expect me to tell you
the
truth about something. These are the cheap seats, not Mount Sinai."
.
"The word genius was whispered into my ear, the first thing I ever
heard, while I was still mewling in my crib. So it never occurred to
me
that I wasn't until middle age."
.
"I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has
always to be out of step with his time."
.
"I'm not rich. Never have been. When you see me in a bad movie as an
actor (I hope not as a director), it is because a good movie has not
been offered to me. I often make bad films in order to live."
.
"Everybody denies that I am genius - but nobody ever called me one".
.
"A good artist should be isolated. If he isn't isolated, something is
wrong."
.
"Hollywood is the only industry, even taking in soup companies, which
does not have laboratories for the purpose of experimentation."
.
"I do not suppose I shall be remembered for anything. But I don't
think
about my work in those terms. It is just as vulgar to work for the
sake
of posterity as to work for the sake of money."
.
"Race hate isn't human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human
nature."
.
"Living in the lap of luxury isn't bad, except you never know when
luxury is going to stand up."
.
"I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that.
Give
them too much and they won't contribute anything themselves. Give
them
just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That's what
gives
the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act."
.
If spiritually you're part of the cat family, you can't bear to be
laughed at. You have to pretend when you fall down that you really
wanted to be down there to see what's under the sofa. The rest of us
don't at all mind being laughed at.
---------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer